Author Topic: The First Words - A Newbie's First Game  (Read 12954 times)

Offline Wordsmith

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Re: The First Words - A Newbie's First Game
« Reply #75 on: December 19, 2012, 07:03:03 pm »
Well, the current game I'm playing on is going very well, I think. I've got a Regenerator Golem (the first Golem I've ever managed to hold long enough to bring online) and a Black Widow ready to come online. Scouts have located a planet that has not only an Artillery Golem but the Botnet as well, only two hops away. I've captured one ARS and have located two more, each no more than three hops from my front lines.

The issue, however, is rapidly becoming one of AIP management. I've gotten further into this game than I have any other - actually survived the early game, believe it or not, with a total of seven planets in my control, and am now approaching the four-hour mark. I've lasted this long in previous games, but never with this much territory and power.

But this is not going to last, I feel. I've only found one Processing Center. Without them, AIP is going to skyrocket very quickly no matter what I try to do.

We'll see how this goes.
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Offline Mánagarmr

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Re: The First Words - A Newbie's First Game
« Reply #76 on: December 20, 2012, 03:31:07 am »
Are you running on Golems medium and that's where the AIP is coming from? Otherwise, you should be fine with a temporary AIP spike.
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Offline LordSloth

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Re: The First Words - A Newbie's First Game
« Reply #77 on: December 20, 2012, 10:34:15 am »
Instead of indulging in my usual tendency towards 'backseat driving', I'm merely going to suggest making a separate save for the fourth hour, as close to 4:00:00 as convenient. This should give you sufficent wiggle-room to reverse time and experiment if necessary.

I would request a screenshot of your Stats screen. Should provide a nice overview of all factions enabled.

Offline Wordsmith

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Re: The First Words - A Newbie's First Game
« Reply #78 on: December 21, 2012, 12:15:30 am »
Are you running on Golems medium and that's where the AIP is coming from? Otherwise, you should be fine with a temporary AIP spike.

Right. I've brought two Golems online so far, so that's +50 AIP. On the bright side, between my heavy defenses and my Regenerator and Black Widow Golems, I've pretty much proven invincible when it comes to defense. The allied Roaming Enclaves that have shown up have proven very helpful as well, since one of the planets I've been unable to take thus far is a Mark IV only two hops away from my home planet. The Enclaves camp out on my home planet, and there's about eight of them thus far. Whenever anybody threatens New Texas, they suddenly find themselves swamped in 2000+ Neinzul Younglings of various kinds.

Anyway. I've definitely hit the middlegame now, with easy expansion ground to a halt in favor of knock-down drag-out battles for juicy pieces of territory, Gate-raiding, attempting to clear paths for scouts, and so on. I've just passed the seven-hour mark. Notable events thus far include:

 - My first ever CPA, repulsed easily.
 - A "natural" wave and Counter-Attack Post wave slamming into my primary whipping boy, New Kansas, in rapid succession, both over a thousand ships strong and both getting absolutely shredded by the combined might of my Golems and the Military Command Center there. The Military CC has earned my appreciation, and will see a lot more use in future.
 - A wake-up call that impressed upon me once and for all the importance of keeping your Energy Collectors intact. A Threatfleet attack at one of my outlying, lightly-defended planets, New California (named as such because it was a resource-rich planet that also contained the Regenerator Golem, and me beating a path to it through a Mark IV planet was considered my own personal gold rush), took out its Energy Collector, and a few eager ships jumped through the nearby wormhole to New Washington and took out that Collector as well. The resultant Energy crisis was only barely salvaged at the last moment by the initial arrival of my now-indispensable allied Enclaves. I now have backup plans in place to install Matter Convertors on my home planet as soon as any Energy Collector falls.
 - My first real slug-fest battle, for a planet called New Arizona which contains a wealth of resources, a broken Artillery Golem, a Core Shield Generator, and the freaking Botnet Golem. Transports again proved their worth here, as transported Bombers, Heavy Bomber Starships, and Fighters proved all that was capable of even reaching the planet's Special Forces Guard Posts (yes, multiple), let alone taking them out, and the Special Forces were absolutely murdering my ships every time I attempted an attack.
 - The return of my old nemeses, the Tractor Trains. I seriously cannot even count how many ships I lost to those buggers until the fall of New Arizona, as the Train Station located there is obviously very close to another one on the other side of my whipping boy. The Tractor Trains would just bounce back and forth across New Kansas over and over, dragging my fleet away whenever they were engaged in a fight against aggressive Threat ships.

As another note, both AIs have Astro Trains at 2/10. In the course of these seven hours, AI 1 has completed two major construction projects, while AI 2 has completed one. I'm fairly sure that AI 1 is a Train Master, though, so that makes sense. AI 2 is quite definitely an Experimentalist.

As for the Stats screen printout, LordSloth, here ya go.

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Offline LordSloth

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Re: The First Words - A Newbie's First Game
« Reply #79 on: December 21, 2012, 10:26:58 am »
Cool, looks like some interesting settings, and sounds like you've got defense all set up to handle trains.

Has the rebellion shown up yet? It's one of my favorite minor factions. A bit overshadowed by golems perhaps, but the ships are absolutely wonderful.

I'm curious - in general, are you running logistics or economic command stations? I haven't had a chance to sit down with the game since the former were rebalanced, and I'm curious how much MKI Logistics Commands help with errant threatfleet. On one hand, you've got more speed with your basic fleet, but you also have less enemy speed reduction.

One of my favorite tactics when dealing with pre-pain trains that I couldn't route around my territory (and couldn't afford counter-dark matter everywhere) was setting my defenses off-center and throwing in lots of spider turrets (5 to 10 a world, usually five) to slow ships down, with a single forcefield and a handful of turrets (esp missile) guarding the logistics command at the system's edge. I'd invariably lose the system, but not after a good long while, and not until a large portion of the threat fleet was disabled. Now the trains are a threat in their own right, so I really have no idea how it'll play out.

Offline Wordsmith

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Re: The First Words - A Newbie's First Game
« Reply #80 on: December 21, 2012, 11:55:14 am »
Cool, looks like some interesting settings

Very.

and sounds like you've got defense all set up to handle trains.

Ahahahahahaha no.

Spire Implosion Artillery are still the only things I've found that can reliably scratch the paint on the Trains. The Artillery Golem might be able to once I get it online, but it's not up yet. The last half-hour of my game has been dedicated to raiding local Train Stations just to get them the hell away from New Kansas, in fact.

Has the rebellion shown up yet? It's one of my favorite minor factions. A bit overshadowed by golems perhaps, but the ships are absolutely wonderful.

Depends on what you mean. I've had Human Resistance Frigates and Fighter/Bombers on my side for a while, but they're less numerous, slower, and less likely to show up during any given battle than the Neinzul Enclaves currently on my side. Still, they did save New Texas once or twice, and it's never bad to have them around.

I haven't run into any other Human factions thus far, though, save for the usual Marauders.

I'm curious - in general, are you running logistics or economic command stations? I haven't had a chance to sit down with the game since the former were rebalanced, and I'm curious how much MKI Logistics Commands help with errant threatfleet. On one hand, you've got more speed with your basic fleet, but you also have less enemy speed reduction.

I've been running Economic Command Stations pretty much exclusively since I started playing this game. Particularly in this one; with two Golems to support, I need the income desperately. In other games, though (the ones I failed horribly in), I've put up Logistic Stations every once in a while, but I've never really been wowed by them. The attack boost and attached guns on the Military Station are much more impressive and useful for dealing with Threat ships, as well as all manner of other nasties. If I want to speed up my own ships, I use Zenith Space-Time Manipulators, and if I want to slow down the enemy, I use Minefields, Tractor Beam turrets, and Gravity turrets.

One of my favorite tactics when dealing with pre-pain trains that I couldn't route around my territory (and couldn't afford counter-dark matter everywhere) was setting my defenses off-center and throwing in lots of spider turrets (5 to 10 a world, usually five) to slow ships down, with a single forcefield and a handful of turrets (esp missile) guarding the logistics command at the system's edge. I'd invariably lose the system, but not after a good long while, and not until a large portion of the threat fleet was disabled. Now the trains are a threat in their own right, so I really have no idea how it'll play out.

Probably badly.  :P

The new Pain Trains are pretty much entirely unaffected by Counter-Dark-Matter turrets, and their effects are much nastier to boot. They're no longer any real threat to your turrets, but Armor and Attack Booster Trains are nasty. Regenerator Trains are essentially miniature Regeneration Golems that the AI gets for free. Repair Trains make taking out any concentrated fleet a real pain. Shield Trains aren't really bad on their own, but they do make it pretty much impossible for your Implosion Artillery to target the other Trains in the caravan, and that's a bad thing. Depending on the location of the Train Station, they can also just park themselves over a critical target at a bad time, too. And then there are the Widow Trains.

I think I might have mentioned those before.
"Sometimes it is better to light a flamethrower than to curse the darkness."
 - Terry Pratchett